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Pakistani Taliban Commander Allegedly Killed in South-Eastern Afghanistan
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
14 22:24 Woodrow [7] 
5 09:12 Skidmark [2] 
8 21:47 trailing wife [5] 
8 21:59 Sloluse Slutle9788 [7] 
7 16:25 AuburnTom [8] 
2 12:58 Super Hose [10] 
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Page 6: Politix
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-Great Cultural Revolution
Elderly woman, 80, who has attended YMCA pool for 35 years is BANNED after demanding transgender worker leave women's locker room accusing them of 'watching little girls pulling down their suits'
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Julie Jaman, 80, has been a regular for 35 years at the Mountain View pool in the City of Port Townsend, Washington state - but has now been banned

  • She was made aware of the trans worker, Clementine Adams, being in the changing room while she was taking a shower after taking a dip

  • Jaman said she 'heard a man's voice' and confronted the woman about whether or not she 'had a penis'

  • She told the trans worker to 'get out' but staff said she was being discriminatory

  • Police were called and took details of the incident in order to file a report

  • Pool bosses say Jaman was barred due to several incidents, not just this one
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/09/2022 07:01 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Mob Rule

#1 
I guess YMCA's in Washington state have forgotten the stands for Christian?

Since it is a Mental Illness, it is not a civil right yet. But give the West Coast states time.
Posted by: NN2N1 || 08/09/2022 9:13 Comments || Top||

#2  The YMCA has veered far from its roots and mission.
Posted by: Super Hose || 08/09/2022 12:51 Comments || Top||

#3  I blame Freddy Mercury.
Posted by: Super Hose || 08/09/2022 12:52 Comments || Top||

#4  The YMCA... the Boy Scouts...

See a pattern?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/09/2022 12:58 Comments || Top||

#5  The YMCA... the Boy Scouts...

...the schools...the churches...the military...
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/09/2022 13:03 Comments || Top||

#6  He chose Clementine?

Going with Julie on this one.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/09/2022 14:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Port Townsend is a Liberal S-ithole inside of a Liberal S-ithole.
Posted by: 746 || 08/09/2022 17:13 Comments || Top||

#8  USN, Ret commented that it’s a typical hippie haven in the 2008 link, 746.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/09/2022 21:47 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
CIA-JSOC convergence impedes covert action oversight, researcher warns
[Intelnews.com] A GROWING CONVERGENCE BETWEEN the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the United States military has been one of the most notable changes in American intelligence after 9/11. Some argue that the resulting overlap between the CIA and the military, in both capabilities and operations, has altered their character —perhaps permanently. The CIA has become more involved than ever before in lethal operations, while the military has embraced intelligence work with unprecedented intensity.

Today, more than two decades after 9/11, joint activities between the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) have become customary. JSOC was founded in the aftermath of operation EAGLE CLAW —the failed attempt to free US diplomatic personnel held in Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis. Its mission is to bring together the Special Operations Forces (SOF) elements across the US military. In addition to ensuring inter-operability and standardization between these elements, JSOC oversees the operations of elite joint SOF units that perform highly classified activities around the world.

Increasingly since 9/11, the CIA and JSOC have been launching combined counter-terrorism operations and have learned to compete less and collaborate more —though turf wars between them are not uncommon. Today it is not unusual for CIA civilians to gather intelligence on a particular target before hand it over to JSOC, which in turn tasks its military personnel to use lethal force against the target. This type of collaboration may bear fruits in the counter-terrorism domain, but also makes it difficult for the US political leadership, primarily Congress, to exercise appropriate oversight over covert action.

PARTIAL OVERSIGHT
In an article published on Sunday, Dr. Jennifer Kibbe, Professor of Government at Franklin and Marshall College, and a specialist on the oversight of intelligence operations, explores the effects of the CIA-JSOC convergence on democratic accountability. The article, "CIA/SOF Convergence and Congressional Oversight", appears in the peer-reviewed journal Intelligence and National Security. If features statements from interviews by current and former Congressional staffers with experience in working for the intelligence committees of the US Congress.

Kibbe finds that the system of compartmentalization, which has traditionally secluded the activities of Congressional committees, coupled with the CIA-JSOC convergence, presents significant challenges for oversight. Presently, the Congressional intelligence committees oversee the activities of the CIA, while JSOC reports to the armed services committees. This poses problems in cases when, for instance, the CIA leads the front end of an operation and then hands it over to JSOC. This means that the intelligence committees in the House or Senate get access to only half of the operation and are unable to share their findings with the armed services committees. Conversely, the armed services committees are not privy to the CIA-led segment of the operation. This happens because of built-in compartmentalization procedures, but also because committee staffers tend have different clearance levels.

THE FUTURE
It is clear that the convergence between the CIA and JSOC is a product of the peculiar counter-terrorism environment that developed in response to the attacks of 9/11. Arguably, therefore, as Washington continues to shift its focus away from non-state actors, and concentrate instead on great-power competition, the CIA will return to its traditional intelligence role. In turn, its special operations wings, which have been involved in lethal operations since 9/11, will atrophy. It follows that the CIA-JSOC convergence, which makes it difficult for Congress to keep an eye on intelligence operations, is likely to subside and may even disappear altogether.

Kibbe strongly rejects this scenario, calling it “naïve”. She argues that, although it does not currently pose existential threats to the US, international terrorism will continue to be on the radar of American policy makers for the foreseeable future. Additionally, the ‘gray zone’ activities of the Kremlin, which have become a standard feature of great power competition in our time, invite covert action as an instrument of policy. Finally, she argues that the rapidly growing field of cyber operations is likely to feature prominently in “that area between diplomacy and war”, in which the CIA and SOF elements of the military are most useful to American policy makers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/09/2022 08:14 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  DoD did NOT control events in Iraq or Afghanistan. Following initial 'boots on the ground,' all strategic calls were made by the Klingons and Foggy Bottom from their US Embassy thrones. The US military provided channeling, disruption, base and road security operations while the real decision makers conducted selective round-up and neutralization missions.

Loyalties began to change following The Goldwater–Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of October 4, 1986. The US Special Operations budget was separated from the larger Army budget and funding process under the Goldwater-Nichols.

Follow the money.

France-24 update - US kills al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul drone strike

Posted by: Besoeker || 08/09/2022 8:41 Comments || Top||

#2  That would be Title 60, correct?
Posted by: DooDahMan || 08/09/2022 8:46 Comments || Top||

#3  /\ You may be thinking of Title-50.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/09/2022 8:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Nah, it's an old joke when there was confusion between Title 10 and Title 50.
Posted by: DooDahMan || 08/09/2022 8:59 Comments || Top||



Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
1920 A new stage of Japanese aggression and the formation of the Far East
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[REGNUM] After the defeat and liquidation of Kolchak, peace did not come in Primorye and Transbaikalia. Moreover, the political and military situation here has sharply become more complicated. Meanwhile, at this stage of the Civil War, control over Siberia was especially important for the Soviet government. Here there were both bread and fuel, which were so necessary in the European part of the country. In order to take them out, at least a respite in hostilities was needed.

On March 28, 1920, the Constituent Congress of the Baikal region was convened, at which the deputies, after the explanatory work of the Bolsheviks, agreed to create a special state in the Far East. On April 1-2, the last Anglo-French-American troops and Czechoslovaks left Vladivostok. Negotiations were also held with the Japanese command on the terms of the evacuation, and on April 4, the corresponding Russian-Japanese agreement was signed.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: badanov || 08/09/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Germany Can Save Itself, and Possibly the World, by Abandoning Four Failed Policies
[Mises] The following is a plea to Germany—the war is over and has been for three-quarters of a century. It's time to stop prostrating yourself for the supposed "good" of Europe. It's time to take complete control of your domestic and foreign policy, without interference from haughty, busybody world elites, and do what is best for yourself. You will be pleasantly surprised that what is good for yourself is also good for your neighbors and the world.

Here are four failed policies that must be ended:

The green energy projects.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: DooDahMan || 08/09/2022 03:35 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like the Mises Institute has been taken over by Russia.
Posted by: European Conservative || 08/09/2022 9:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Given all the green shit y'all did over the past twenty years, and Schroeder's and Merkel's non-prosecution for same.... so's Germany.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/09/2022 10:28 Comments || Top||

#3  What part of "Putin made 300 billion just in the past year before the invasion from your drug-trip energy policies" don't you understand?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/09/2022 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  I got a little kick out of the winter tires and mask comparison.
The “Unvaccinated” Question (Revisited)
Posted by: DooDahMan || 08/09/2022 13:11 Comments || Top||

#5  What about Merkel's policy of letting Arabs take over the country?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/09/2022 13:25 Comments || Top||

#6  LOL as if the German government wants what's good for Germany.

No.

What they want is to pursue their own objectives: mastery of the EU, joining a superstate that will be linked with other superstates to form a global governance, open borders, and the end of the German ethnicity in favor of a Afro-European mixed race population.
Posted by: Tiny Jeater6933 || 08/09/2022 14:47 Comments || Top||

#7  This seems more like a description of how Germany can save Russia.
Posted by: AuburnTom || 08/09/2022 16:25 Comments || Top||


Government Corruption
This is a provocation. They are trying to get a reaction that allows a further crackdown.
From the Other Perfesser
Links to all of today’s articles and commentary on the subject can be seen here. We had the first report of the FBI raid yesterday evening here.
[LI] Don’t take the bait.

Posted by William A. Jacobson Monday, August 8, 2022 at 10:27pm 90

My overall sense of what happened at Mar-a-Lago is that this is a provocation.

If New York Times reporting is right — and they never err on the side of being soft on Trump — then this raid was over documents the National Archives thinks Trump should not have, or perhaps classified documents in his possession. That is not something the FBI raids major political candidates over — See, In Re Hillary Rodham Clinton.

This is a provocation. They are trying to get a reaction that allows a further crackdown. See, In Re J6.

It’s also a provocation to get Trump to declare his candidacy for President before the midterms. Democrats would love to turn 2022 into a referendum on Trump rather than the deliberate destruction of the national borders and inflation.

Would the FBI and DOJ do such a thing? Aren’t they “above” politics? The then FBI Director James Comey admitted to trying to set up the new President Trump by alerting him to the Steele Dossier, and then leaked the story of the briefing to CNN, which gave license to report on the false allegations in the dossier. So yes, the FBI and DOJ would do such a thing, and have done such a thing to Trump.

All the more reason to keep your heads about you.

Don’t take the bait. Being stupid isn’t tough, it’s just stupid.





Posted by: badanov || 08/09/2022 10:02 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We still have a lot of civil remedies left.
Posted by: badanov || 08/09/2022 10:03 Comments || Top||

#2  They may already have their end game in sight.
Posted by: Mercutio || 08/09/2022 10:29 Comments || Top||

#3  The "Don't do anything" strategy. Right. Just roll over and enjoy it. Congratulations, you've just signaled them that they can outright steal this November's midterm following that approach.

Guess what, you and they are never going to be able to control what ever you call the activists on both sides.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/09/2022 11:59 Comments || Top||

#4  The end game is stupid. The President can declassify anything they want, so this disqualified to run is based on them finding documents he 'forgot' to declassify or that were mislabeled? That's daft. And if that technicality somehow works it'll push more people onto team Desantes.
Posted by: ruprecht || 08/09/2022 12:21 Comments || Top||

#5  They did this on the day that Grassley demanded documents. Hopefully all the disturbance by the FBI did not spoil the vacation of the FBI Director.
Posted by: Super Hose || 08/09/2022 12:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Fellow downtown today, with a loudspeaker at the Walmart/Expressway exit. Posterboard: FJB.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/09/2022 15:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Greg Jarrett today on Kudlow, noted that 18 US Code 2071 limits the legibility for President, a directly defined element of the Constitution. Jarrett said, even US Code, defined by the Congress cannot modify the Constitution without an actual Constitutional Amendment approved by the States, thus nullifying this tactic.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 08/09/2022 17:34 Comments || Top||

#8  So a Florida Magistrate versus SCOTUS?
Posted by: Bobby || 08/09/2022 17:38 Comments || Top||

#9  Don’t take the bait.

Bullshit. If the American public don't do anything you have no idea how many ways from Sunday you are fcuked. Sorry but that's true. This is classic stasi stuff. It is what we do in India or in the 'Stain. America doesn't want to be another India does it? 1/6 was a half baked stupid little picnic, joined in by some minded folks and fools. What the country needs is a Spring. Do or die.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 08/09/2022 17:40 Comments || Top||

#10  1/6 was a half baked stupid little picnic, joined in by some minded folks and fools. Posted by: Dron66046

You were there 66046?
Tell us all about it.

Shooting will start soon enough.
Posted by: The Walking Unvaxed || 08/09/2022 19:39 Comments || Top||

#11  Doesn't matter. When they don't get the reaction they want, they will stage it. Helloooooo, J6 anyone?
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 08/09/2022 20:26 Comments || Top||

#12  Dron - we know all this, and we've been observing. Most of us grew up on the story of Bunker Hill. We're more than ready, just waiting for the whites of their eyes.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 08/09/2022 20:29 Comments || Top||

#13  The title of this article is a threat to MAGA.
Posted by: Sloluse Slutle9788 || 08/09/2022 21:26 Comments || Top||

#14  Lay down and die? F that.
Posted by: Woodrow || 08/09/2022 22:24 Comments || Top||


Sebastian Gorka drops powerful video about what the FBI raid on Mar-A-Lago means for all Americans
Links to all of today’s articles and commentary on the subject can be seen here. We had the first report of the FBI raid yesterday evening here.
[Twitchy] Dr.Sebastian Gorka took to Twitter to share a somber message about what the unprecedented FBI raid on a former American President means for all Americans, regardless of who they voted for:
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/09/2022 04:54 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


#2  Put Hunter, Obama, Barr and Wray in Gitmo. Take the useless RINOs with them.

If you think this is news wait until the armed IRS rounds up all MAGA Americans.

And it's coming, we all know it.
Posted by: Woodrow || 08/09/2022 7:26 Comments || Top||

#3  He's not wrong. Whatever became of Sandy Berger, you know the guy apprehended outside of the National Archives with his socks and undies stuffed with primary documents?

This isn't about Trump, it's absolutely about us.
Posted by: Cesare || 08/09/2022 7:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Now you know why the IRS has several million rounds of ammunition.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/09/2022 9:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Raid at MAL...FBI ransacking safe deposit boxes...Canadian government ordering bank accounts frozen....private Russian citizens having their property confiscated stolen from them.

No, nothing wrong with this picture. Rule of law is juuuuuuuust fine.
Posted by: DooDahMan || 08/09/2022 9:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Watch donations flow in to MAGA candidates. They will have ensured the wave in their effort to impede it.
Posted by: Super Hose || 08/09/2022 12:56 Comments || Top||

#7  (www.oann.com) According to reports from The Miami Herald, the Florida judge who signed off on the search warrant that allowed FBI agents to raid former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Monday once represented Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplices.

The news organization detailed that Judge Bruce Reinhart had quit his job as a US attorney in 2008 to go work for the disgraced financier. Reinhart represented his plane pilots, his assistant and many others who had ties to Epstein. The Florida judge donated to the campaign of former President Barack Obama as well as to opponents of then-candidate Trump during the 2016 election.

The Monday raid by the DOJ is being labeled as highly political. Many speculated federal agents are looking for something beyond classified White House documents.

A number of Republicans slammed the FBI by saying its actions are motivated by a political bias. They pointed out that the bureau has protected Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden from congressional scrutiny.

https://www.oann.com/report-fla-judge-who-approved-fbi-raid-on-mar-a-lago-represented-financier-jeffrey-epsteins-employees/
Posted by: Sloluse Slutle9788 || 08/09/2022 21:49 Comments || Top||

#8  FBI seizes cell phone of Rep Scott Perry:

Rep Scott Perry is the newly elected Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus – whose mission is “to give a voice to countless Americans who feel that Washington does not represent them.
Posted by: Sloluse Slutle9788 || 08/09/2022 21:59 Comments || Top||


A two-tier justice system is not a justice system. It is a totalitarian system
Links to all of today’s articles and commentary on the subject can be seen here. We had the first report of the FBI raid yesterday evening here.
[THEFEDERALIST] On Thursday, Barack Obama
I inhaled. That was the point...
’s Attorney General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder
... aka Mister Fast and Furious...
decided it was the time to bring the subtext of the Jan. 6 show trials and related domestic security state activities into the open.

"My guess is that by the end of this process, you’re going to see indictments involving high-level people in the White House, you’re going to see indictments against people outside the White House who were advising them with regard to the attempt to steal the election, and I think ultimately you’re probably going to see the president, former president of the United States indicted as well," Holder told SiriusXM host Joe Madison.

Holder noted that the U.S. Department of Justice he formerly headed is working with the illegally constituted Jan. 6 Commission towards this goal. We know these entities are also working with the FBI, whose head bit his thumb at congressional oversight repeatedly in a public hearing last week.

LOCKING UP OPPOSITION POLITICIANS IS WHAT PUTIN DOES
An indictment of former President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
would be a breathtakingly authoritarian turn. It would amount to the U.S. security state refusing to accept "no" from America’s voters yet again. An indictment would be an unelected and unaccountable federal agency overruling voters’ two-time rejection of impeachment through their elected representatives.

This is the core danger of the administrative state: Its now open propensity to go rogue. It is apparently hellbent now on turning the United States into a banana republic.

Democrats called Donald Trump a fascist
...anybody you disagree with, damn them...
, authoritarian, and wannabe dictator for chants at his rallies of "Lock her up," referring to his opponent Crooked Hillary Clinton
...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away. Politix is not one of her talents, but it's something she keeps trying to do...
. At the time, leftists pointed out that imprisoning, interrogating, investigating, and otherwise using government resources to harass and prosecute one’s political opponents was the mark of tyrannical regimes such as Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
’s and Adolf Hitler
...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days as a politician somebody doesn't like...
. "Democracies don’t lock up political opponents," the Washington Post editorial board told us in 2016.

That is still true when the ones pushing the interrogations, investigations, entrapments into committing felonies, show trials in unusual venues with no cross-examination or due process, early morning home raids, excessive detainment, and asymmetrical punishments are Democrats. Democrats are trashing republican institutions, expectations, and guarantees for political purposes, most visibly now in their Jan. 6 effort to destroy the lives of protestors largely charged with misdemeanors and to expand Spygate tactics more broadly.
Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've long thought Obama was this country's poison pill. There was never any coming back from it.
Posted by: One Eyed Tsar || 08/09/2022 12:40 Comments || Top||

#2  There is a road back, but Obama won't be making the drive with us.
Posted by: Super Hose || 08/09/2022 12:58 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
5 Consequences of Israel's Stunning Win over Palestinian Islamic Jihad
[BREITBART] Israel won a swift and decisive victory last weekend in a brief conflict with Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
(PIJ), an Iranian-backed terrorist group based in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip.
A short, victorious war.
The war began after Israel arrested a PIJ leader in the West Bank last week. PIJ then began mobilizing for terror attacks along the Gaza-Israel boundary, and Israel launched a preemptive strike, killing PIJ leader Taysir al-Jabari.

Starting Friday afternoon, PIJ then launched about 1,000 rockets, many of which were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile shield. Some PIJ rockets actually killed Paleostinian civilians in Gaza.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter wished he had thought to pack sun block...
Israel wiped out PIJ targets — including the whole leadership — with minimal impact on civilians.

The whole conflict ended Sunday evening with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, leaving many observers puzzled as to whether PIJ — and Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
— had made a massive blunder.

There are several consequences that are immediately clear:

1. Iran looks vulnerable. Iran’s proxy was easily routed, which raises questions about the military readiness of other proxies, such as Hezbollah in Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
. One of the reasons Iran has been able to deter a possible military strike on its nuclear facilities — either by Israel or the U.S. — is the fear that it could retaliate against Israel using rockets launched from Lebanon and Gaza. While Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, — also supported by Iran — has been able to hurt Israel somewhat, PIJ’s utter failure damages Iran’s deterrence.

2. Paleostinians failed to rouse international sympathy. When President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. We get to suffer the consequences...
took office, amid promises of opening a Paleostinian consulate in Jerusalem, and restoring some funding to Paleostinian organizations, it seemed Israel might suffer. But after Hamas launched a war against Israel last year, forcing Biden in a more pro-Israel direction, the Paleostinians — and their left-wing allies in the U.S. — lost their opportunity. There was barely any international opposition to Israel this time around.

3. Israel is winning the media war. Sixteen years ago, during the Second Lebanon War, terror groups were able to trigger international outrage against Israel by hiding fighters and weapons among civilians, and manufacturing stories of atrocities. It fell to independent bloggers to debunk the media’s worst anti-Israel stories. Israel’s media operation is far more sophisticated today. It responded instantly to claims of an Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
on Paleostinian civilians by showing they had been hit by a PIJ rocket.

4. Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
is becoming a positive player. Qatar had, until recently, been known as a major sponsor of the Moslem Brüderbund and Paleostinian terror groups. But Qatar has begun to play a more positive role, limiting its funding to more legitimate uses in Gaza, and reportedly helping Egypt to mediate the ceasefire between Israel and PIJ. If Qatar joins the other Arab states that have become friendly toward Israel, within and beyond the Abraham Accords, that will be huge step toward regional peace.

5. Israel’s left-wing government may be stronger heading into fall elections. Israelis have tended to trust former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on foreign policy and national security. But interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid can now say he led Israel to victory. Moreover, the Arab party in his coalition stayed quiet, and there was little of the inter-communal Arab-Jewish violence of the previous conflict. Lapid and his allies might hope to remain in power, thwarting a Netanyahu revival.

As always, there are few certainties in the Middle East. And while PIJ may have lost decisively, other Iranian-backed groups, notably Hamas and Hezbollah, are thought to have much more sophisticated arsenals. Still, with Iran facing possible renewed international isolation in the absence of a new nuclear deal, the momentum in the Middle East appears to have shifted — and the Biden administration can seize the moment, if it tries.

Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  Qatar is highly motivated by the World Cup opportunity to not have things go south for several months.
Posted by: Super Hose || 08/09/2022 13:01 Comments || Top||

#2  A short, victorious war.

Well, perhaps a skirmish.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/09/2022 15:56 Comments || Top||


Iran's malign hand behind the scenes
[Jpost] Palestinian Islamic Jihad's leader Ziad al-Nakhaleh had a series of meetings last week and a picture was released on Saturday of him with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps head Hossein Salami.

Under Nakhalah’s leadership, Islamic Jihad – whose founder Fathi Shikaki took his inspiration for establishing the organization in 1981 from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the 1979 Iranian Revolution – has turned into a fully owned and operated subsidiary of Iran.

While Iran and Islamic Jihad had a brief falling out in 2015-2016 over the Saudi campaign against the Houthis in Yemen, today Islamic Jihad is to Iran in Gaza what Hezbollah is to the Islamic Republic in Lebanon, and the Houthis are to the Iranians in Yemen.

Iran supports Hamas but it controls Islamic Jihad. There is a difference. To understand the latter terrorist group’s behavior over the past week, it is important to understand Iran’s interests. One need not be a brilliant Mideast strategist to understand them: cause Israel as much hurt as possible.

“We are with you on this path until the end – and let Palestine and the Palestinians know that they are not alone,” Salami told Nakhalah during a meeting in Tehran.

Salami said Islamic Jihad’s actions have ushered in a “new era,” that Israel “will pay a heavy price once again for the recent crime,” and that “Palestinian resistance groups” today have “the ability to manage major wars.”

Be that as it may, after three days of Operation Breaking Dawn, Israel can point to several significant achievements in this “minor war.”

First, it surprised Islamic Jihad on Friday with its pinpoint strike on the safe house in Gaza City of its Northern Command head Tayseer al-Jabari, as well as the killing at the same time of Abdullah Kadoum, head of the group‘s anti-tank guided-missile section. It scored another success late Saturday night by killing Khaled Mansour, the group’s Southern Command chief. Those actions highlighted both Israel’s technical and intelligence capabilities.

Israel also sent an unequivocal message to Islamic Jihad, and all others watching, that it will continue to fight terrorism originating in the West Bank by going on the offensive, by taking the battle to the enemy, and by not waiting until a terrorist attack “succeeds” before going after terrorists and terror supporters throughout the volatile region.

Jerusalem will not be deterred from acting in Judea and Samaria by an Iranian-backed terrorist group issuing threats from Gaza. Israel sent a strong message that Islamic Jihad’s attempts to establish new rules – to set a new equation whereby any IDF action in the West Bank would lead to an automatic response or the threat of one, that in and of itself could paralyze the South – would not be tolerated.

But Jerusalem was surprised as well.

It was surprised by the intelligence information regarding Islamic Jihad’s intent after the arrest last week of Bassam Saadi in Jenin to fire anti-tank missiles at Israeli targets near the Gaza border. The conventional wisdom, based on experience, was that Islamic Jihad would issue some threats, maybe even fire some rockets toward Israel that would either be intercepted or land harmlessly in fields, but then – after a few hours – life would return to normal.

That didn’t happen this time.

Israel had hoped it would, and it was not alone. Even Hamas had hoped life would return to normal since a significant conflagration at this time does not serve its purpose of trying to reconstruct Gaza with Egyptian and Qatari help. Hamas also benefits from some 14,000 workers who have received permits to work in Israel – permits temporarily rescinded last week.

Hamas, not Islamic Jihad, has overall authority for the life of the citizens in Gaza. It wants to be the one to decide when to launch a campaign against Israel. It does not want its hand forced by an organization that lacks the day-to-day responsibility for the citizens of Gaza, and whose considerations are not necessarily in sync with its own.

Islamic Jihad did not respond as expected because it was not in Iran’s interest for it to do so. Tehran has an interest in keeping the situation in the South at a fever pitch; it has no interest in calming the situation. And the considerations foremost in the mind of the jihadist group’s leaders are what suits the Islamic Republic, to whom it is tied ideologically and financially. Last year, Nakhalah said Islamic Jihad took “direct orders” from the IRGC and that Iran delivered missiles to the Gaza Strip that were used to attack Tel Aviv.

After its initial successes against Islamic Jihad on Friday and Saturday, Israel’s interest was to end the fighting sooner rather than later. The longer the fighting would continue, the greater the likelihood of something going wrong that would fundamentally change the picture – such as an errant Israeli rocket that would kill Palestinian civilians – and lead to pressure on Hamas to join the fray.

Iran, on the other hand, would like to see the fighting continue. If it doesn’t continue, then that is a sign of the sway of other actors in the region able to convince Islamic Jihad that to continue firing rockets now would be inimical to their interests.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/09/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran



Who's in the News
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1Palestinian Authority
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1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2022-08-09
  Pakistani Taliban Commander Allegedly Killed in South-Eastern Afghanistan
Mon 2022-08-08
  Gaza ceasefire takes effect, per agreement by Israel, Islamic Jihad
Sun 2022-08-07
  All senior Islamic Jihad officials in Gaza eliminated
Sat 2022-08-06
  Day 2: Gaza: Palestinian militant Tayseer Jabari Tango Uniform as Israel strikes after threats
Fri 2022-08-05
  Russian invaders shell Dnipropetrovsk region at night
Thu 2022-08-04
  Iraq's Sadr demands new polls as political crisis escalates
Wed 2022-08-03
  Afghanistan Needs India’s Help ‘Desperately’ to Secure Peaceful Environment: Taliban Interior Minister Haqqani
Tue 2022-08-02
  Nancy does Taipei
Mon 2022-08-01
  US takes out Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri in 'successful' Afghanistan counterterrorism operation
Sun 2022-07-31
  Zelenskyy ordered the evacuation of the city of Donetsk
Sat 2022-07-30
  Yale study shows sanctions are crippling Russia's economy
Fri 2022-07-29
  Ethiopia says over 209 Al-Shabab fighters killed after failed incursion
Thu 2022-07-28
  GDP Shrank 0.9% in Q2, Marking Second Consecutive Quarter of U.S. Economy Contraction
Wed 2022-07-27
  US Seeks Life Sentence For Canadian ISIS Propagandist
Tue 2022-07-26
  Syria’s Autonomous Administration hands over 146 of Tajik ISIS children and women


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